Operation Bouma was the most high-profile murder investigation<\/a> he led during his police career \u2013 and there were a few, including the murder of policeman Murray Stretch in Mangakino.<\/p>\nTelevision production company Screentime approached Bell and asked him to front a show on the murder, the success of that prompted them to invite him to front Police Ten 7.<\/p>\n
Colleagues pay tribute to \u2018larger-than-life\u2019 Bell<\/p>\n
Friend and former colleague Detective Sergeant Garry Hawkins said Bell was highly respected among the CIB staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a presence about him and loved the media and knew how to play them and get the best for us, too. They won because they got a comment, and it worked for us to help crime get solved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawkins said he was one of about 10 police officers who kept in touch with Bell when he moved to Whitianga and would catch up with him regularly for fishing trips.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a big social and family element to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell was also not afraid to speak up if he saw something that wasn\u2019t right in society, Hawkins said.<\/p>\n
Former colleague Detective Sergeant Chris McLeod said he worked closely with Bell on the Bouma inquiry and was his second in charge during the Jo-Anne Maree Van Duyvenbooden murder inquiry in Tauranga in 1999.<\/p>\n
![\"Graham]()
Graham Bell during filming of Police Ten 7. Photo \/ Hawkes Bay Today<\/p>\n
McLeod said Bell had a great mind for detail and could recall specific information during a time when computer systems and keyword searches weren\u2019t around.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could remember in week six of an inquiry a piece of evidence he had read in week one. He had an incredible mind like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The way he resonated with the public via the media was his strength, McLeod said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could throw a one-liner that would grab the attention of the media as well as the public and therefore generate a flow of information.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLeod said Bell enjoyed bringing criminals to justice, was authoritative and not afraid to make a decision<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a larger-than-life personality that got us resources that we might not have gotten if it were another boss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long-standing Rotorua police officer Detective Matt McLeod paid tribute to Bell, whom he worked under in Rotorua\u2019s CIB during many cases, including Operation Bouma.<\/p>\n
Matt McLeod said Bell was \u201cstraight up\u201d and led the team well while also taking good care of staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a really good motivator and didn\u2019t beat around the bush. He had a great sense of humour.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Graham]()
Graham Bell hosted Police Ten 7 for 13 years. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
In 2023, Bell told Media Insider that he was sad but not surprised Ten 7 had been axed by TVNZ and said political figures should be doing more to help identify and solve causes of crime, rather than criticising a television show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWokeness and political correctness have just killed it in the end,\u201d Bell said. \u201cYou can\u2019t hide from reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell officially retired as host of the show in 2014 and was replaced by serving police officer Rob Lemoto.<\/p>\n
Bell said his descriptors came naturally \u2013 they weren\u2019t scripted.<\/p>\n
He said he was still often approached in the street by people shouting the likes of, \u201cHave you seen those mongrels yet?\u201d.<\/p>\n
While it remained one of New Zealand\u2019s most popular television shows \u2013 and a successful export to Australia \u2013 it had been subject to critical media commentary, political heat and major academic research.<\/a><\/p>\nBell leaves behind his wife of 57 years, Joyce, his children David, Megan and Chrissy, their partners Shar, Dobbo and Morne, and his grandchildren Tom, Ruby, Scarlett, Ollie, Jack and Bella.<\/p>\n
Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detective Inspector Graham Bell talks to the Herald in one of his last interviews as he reaches retirement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,2033,17290,6179,7126,52210,2740,18361,42,12022,52211,43,675,6034,40,38,41,39,9347],"class_list":["post-64231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-and","tag-bell","tag-detective","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-exdetective","tag-former","tag-graham","tag-headlines","tag-host","tag-inspector","tag-news","tag-police","tag-ten","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-veteran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}